Crime Traveller - Jack's Guess
by the stargate time traveller
Summary: Jack Slade was not stupid; he went to Holly's for dinner with her and his son with a suspicion on his mind after discovering something wasn't quite right when they had visited him in prison, so he went to see if he was right.


Disclaimer - Another first Crime Traveller fanfic, please let me know what you think.

Feedback would be lovely.

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Jack's Guess.

He wasn't stupid, and as he got back in the rented car he'd gotten for tonight to get him back to his new digs while he had the time to think about what he was going to do with his life now he was out of prison. If they thought he was then he was disappointed, especially since he _knew _Jeff was not foolish and he doubted very much Holly was stupid.

It had been hard for him to believe Gareth, someone whom Jack had believed to be one of the best friends he'd ever had, had not only conspired with a criminal like Lenny Gebler to frame him by planting that cash on him, but he had tried to repeat history by framing his son. Jack had wondered if Gareth had deliberately chosen Jeff, but he doubted it; while his _so-called friend _had known about Jeff, he would probably have forgotten about him long ago, while his cushy career had taken off.

Nah, it was likely Gareth had come down and had planned originally to frame some unwitting copper.

It was probably blind luck for him that it would be Jeff. Gareth would spin it however he liked, and he had heard from his old friend Kate how Gareth had made a crack _'like father, like son' _and Jeff had reacted badly, while he had gone out of his way to make Jeff 'admit' he had taken one or two diamonds, while at the same time making it worse than it was by saying Jeff had put 25.000 in his bank account.

But something made no sense, and it had been confusing Jack ever since he had heard of it.

Jeff and Holly had visited him when he was in prison shortly after the diamond had been planted in his flat, in almost the exact same way the money had been planted on _him_. But when he had checked the dates of the case - he had wanted to make sure there was finally closure, which was the least he deserved after what Gareth and Gebler had done to him - he had found something that made no sense.

Jeff had come to him saying that the day before he had been accused of smuggling diamonds that had been stolen into his flat where they were frozen in the ice-cube tray, that made sense.

But what did not make sense was the fact while Jack was meeting Jeff and Holly who'd come to visit him in prison while he was being accused within hours.

At first, Jack had thought there was a simple time discrepancy so he had checked it again. A file that said this or that, but it was real and genuine. He had naturally been confused at first, and he had wondered what was going on before he decided to check out Holly and Jeff's files. It had cost him a few old favours from Kate, but he had simply told his old friend he had just wanted to find out what his only son had been getting up to even though it wasn't true.

He had the feeling this time discrepancy thing was quite frequent somehow, and so he had wanted to see just what his son had been up to. He wanted to know if there had been anything similar.

Kate had agreed, grudgingly though she had drawn the line when he had wanted to see Holly's, he had told her he wanted to know more about the lady who had helped prove his innocence; at the time he hadn't _dared _tell Kate anything about the time discrepancy.

He and Kate went way back. Both of them understood the other, and he did feel slightly guilty at lying to her, but he had needed to know more about what Jeff had been doing, though he did say he was an old detective who wanted to be nosy.

He knew he had more or less overdone it a bit with the old detective routine, wanting to know more about the young lady he could easily see had won over Jeff. Jack had said he just wanted to know more about her before he met her and Jeff at Holly's flat for dinner. Kate had let it slide, understanding at once what he wanted, and he had the file fairly quickly.

Holly was the Science officer of the station, she handled the electronic and forensic sides of the investigations, and according to the file she was good at what she did, though Kate had noticed she had started becoming more and more involved with the cases whereas in the past she had only taken a bare interest since it wasn't really her job to get involved.

That made sense in Jack's mind, though he did see the girl had made great contributions in the past to the various cases.

But over the year….

Over the year, she and Jeff had been solving cases left and right. But the strange thing was, there were instances where the _witnesses claimed Holly and Jeff had been in another place at the same time it was confirmed they were somewhere else. _

Jack knew Kate well enough to know she would _never _have noted that in Holly or Jeff's files unless she was suspicious; he guessed from the notes, which became more and more detailed, Kate had originally thought nothing of it at first, but as time had gone on and the sightings of Jeff and Holly being in two different places seemingly at the same time appeared frequently, she had begun to get suspicious and had entered it into the files.

Kate may have been suspicious, but Jack was unsure of what she planned to do about these weird coincidences; the sightings of Jeff and Holly being in two different places, how they knew so much about the cases they were investigating… He guessed she was either ignoring it while making notes of it because of the good they were doing, or she was building up evidence in the hope of getting more clues to help her deduce what was going on. Jack wasn't sure which it was, and he wasn't going to ask though if Kate asked him about it, then he would speak with her about it, especially since he had spotted something in Holly's files which made him think.

Holly Turner was the daughter of Professor Frederick Turner, that was the first thing he had found out about her once he had read her file.

Science wasn't really Jack's strong point, but he knew enough about forensics since he had joined the police in order to help him in his work in criminal investigations. He had once even used _sticky tape and cocoa powder _to lift fingerprints when he had discovered them on a window of a house that had been burgled when he was a teenager, for Christ's sake, and since then he had gained a tremendous admiration for forensic specialists who were good at what they did, although he had kept on studying it.

But Holly's father wasn't a specialist in forensics, he was a specialist in something much more complicated and something Jack didn't really understand. He didn't understand Quantum physics, but he remembered something interesting about Professor Turner.

He had written a book about time travel, and a copy of it was inside the prison library. He had seen it often enough to know it was there but as he had told Jeff and Holly at the table, he had never read it though he had planned on doing so though whether or not he understood it or not, he didn't know.

But still, time travel….

Jack had never really formed an opinion of time travel, to tell the truth.

Yeah, he had always enjoyed the odd movie and book once or twice, though those were science-fiction, this was real life. And truthfully, while he thought his idea was mad, it made sense in a way, and truthfully when he had listened in on the room in Holly's flat which was locked - for decoration - he had heard the humming of electrical equipment of some sort, he'd gained further confirmation of his guess, and at dinner when he had confronted the pair, he had known they were lying when they had blustered.

Really, Jeff needed to improve his skills as a detective to help him learn how to lie better, especially if he wanted to be a copper for a long time.

Jack Slate had gone to the dinner with a suspicion on his mind, now he was sure.

So Jeff and Holly had a time machine and they were using it to solve cases, were they?

Jack could see the benefits of having a time machine for detective work, although he wondered if it would take the edge off of being a copper. He could easily see it happening; he could see the police becoming so dependent on time travel they wouldn't really think much about stretching their minds to solve cases, and he hoped the same didn't happen to Jeff, though he knew his son.

Jeff was a good detective, and Jack had been proud when his somewhat maverick son had solved his first case as a DC. But Jeff had a tendency like everyone else to be complacent when a good thing came along. Jack only hoped, if the time machine suddenly developed a fault, which complex machines had a habit of doing, he'd be prepared to cope.

But he would let Jeff and Holly deal with that if it happened, although he guessed Holly, being a sharp-minded young woman, would be able to cope better than his son.

Jack had no real idea what he was going to do about the time machine. When he had first visited, he had been in two minds about what to do, but as he took one last look at the flat, he decided to leave it alone. Jeff and Holly had both helped him, and they had the capacity to help others with the time machine, and since they were trying to keep it secret he was going to respect their wishes even though he could see the benefits.

As he got inside the car, Jack thought about Holly and Jeff. He smiled, and he hoped they got together soon. They made a great couple, although only time would tell.


End file.
